


What have we done?

by CrazyGecko



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Gen, My First AO3 Post
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-23
Updated: 2019-05-23
Packaged: 2020-03-13 04:07:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18933076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrazyGecko/pseuds/CrazyGecko
Summary: After receiving a message that a couple of farmers survived an attack by a darkspawn party a few days south of Lothering, Duncan takes two of his Wardens to investigate.





	What have we done?

**Author's Note:**

> First fic, so constructive criticism is highly appreciated. Non-constructive criticism will be moderately appreciated. English is not my first language so let me know of any mistakes I made as well.  
> Rated teen for some language. I'm pretty sure I used a bad word somewhere...  
> Try to enjoy!!

“We made camp over there, near the tree line.”

The small group entered the forest clearing from a small river path, while their guide pointed at the far side. There was not much evidence left of the campsite, except for an overturned log, serving as a makeshift chair and a small blackened spot, already starting to overgrow.

The small patch of grass was about 20 meters wide, bordered by a tiny brook to the east and surrounded by small ash trees an all other sides. Right through the middle of the clearing was a dark line of blackened soil, and burned grass, going from the bank of the brook, straight to the opposite tree line.

When they arrived at the former camp site, the guide was joined by a tall man in light silverite armor. His slightly tanned skin betraying that his origins were definitely not Fereldan, but he spoke with a Fereldan accent nonetheless. With his hand stroking his dark black beard, intelligent eyes surveyed the immediate surroundings. The sky was already darkening slightly.

Two humans and an elf stepped into the abandoned camp, the tall man turned towards them.

“We will camp here tonight. Jarret, check the perimeter, see what you can find. Arrow, do you sense anything?”

A dark-haired human in boiled leather armor and a large griffon shield nodded slightly to his commander. He set his shield against a burned down tree stump before disappearing into the woods to the south. The elf closed her eyes and bowed her head slightly in concentration , a brown strand of hair falling over her face.

“There is something… “ she murmured, frowning. The tattoos on her face wrinkled slightly.

_The sensation was familiar, but different. New, but old at the same time._

She opened her eyes, looking at her superior.

“We are safe for the moment, Commander. Nothing close by at least.”

“Very well. There is still an hour of daylight left I think. See if you can hunt us something proper to eat. I am getting tired of this waybread.”

“In these parts?” The elf sighed. “Maybe I can find a lost rabbit or something. Just don’t get your hopes up Duncan.” She said before starting to the west toward the top of a nearby hill.

“I’ll take anything over moldy bread at this point.” The man chuckled after her before turning to the 2 men accompanying them, a slight frown returning to his face.

 

“Now tell me what happened here, sir Hawke. They tried to ambush you, you say?”

He looked at the older of the two.  A broad shoulder man with dark eyes and ashen black hair. Grey streaks above his ears and in his beard, were the only signs that he was getting on in age. But his eyes still had a bright spark in them and he had no trouble following the others over the last 2 days in the Wilds.

“Tried being the operative word. They followed us from the south, I believe. We thought we lost them in the woods and made camp here. The emissary circled us while the rest of the troop stayed behind in the trees. When the emissary came out of the tree line from the other side of the field he conjured a wall of fire along the clearing. I assume you saw the scorched line when we crossed the plain?” He said pointing back to the way they came

“I think he was trying to cut off our escape while the others attacked us in the rear. The others were still darkspawn though. Those small ones, mostly, with the short legs.”

“Genlocks.”

“Right. Anyway, they were not the stealthiest group so we heard them coming and quickly set some wards and packed up to go north. The emissary surprised us though when his firewall blocked us, but we were able to jump through and over and deal with him.”

“You jumped over the wall of fire? Why not freeze part of it and run through?” Duncan asked, one eyebrow raised.

Hawke jumped slightly at the remark but he recovered quickly and glared at the tall man. “Freeze? We are just simple farmers, sir Duncan, I don’t …”

“You have nothing to fear from us, sir Hawke. Let the templars do their job, we Grey Wardens will do ours. We are not here to apprehend an apostate…. or two.” He said, quickly shifting his gaze to the young man behind Hawke, who was busy setting up the tents.

“You are not going to tell the templars?” Hawke asked quietly.

“You have my word.”

The old man’s gazed relaxed a little after that. “I’ll take the word of a Grey Warden. Yes, so we froze a path through the fire”, he continued. “We dealt with the emissary quite quickly while he was isolated from his group. The others were held back by wards we left when we set up our camp and we managed to escape north. I think the rest of the pack gave up the chase, when we killed the emissary. I sent word to you when we were back in Lothering 3 days later.”

“I see.” Duncan frowned and turned back to inspect the remains of the campsite. “Darkspawn aren’t known to apply tactics, cutting off escape routes, basic pincer movements… Although we have heard that a particularly smart darkspawn could manage to coordinate a small group to execute simple strategies. Maybe this was such a case.”

“Smart Darkspawn?”

“Relatively speaking, of course.”

“Still… scary thought.”

“Good job in getting rid of it.”

Hawke simply nodded.

“Mind if I ask what you were doing out here anyway, so far south of Lothering? It is a 3 day walk from the village at least.”

“An errand for the misses. My wife is a bit of a herbalist and some specific plants can only be found this far south.”

At that moment, the other human warden returned to the camp. “Commander. I found some of their weapons south of here.” He said carrying a curved iron blade in his left hand.

“I’ll be right there, Jarret.” Duncan said before facing back to Hawke.

“It is getting dark. Tomorrow we will see if we can track down the party that attacked you.” He said turning towards his fellow Warden.

While Duncan followed Jarret out into the trees, Hawke turned and walked to the young man to help setting up their camp.

 

“They came from the cave. I know it.” The young man said quietly.

Hawke glanced back to make sure the Wardens were out of earshot.

“We cannot know that, Dale.” He whispered back. “This is the Wilds. They could have come from anywhere. Besides, we blocked off the entrance.”

“They must have found a way around or they cleared rubble. This is no coincidence. I’m sure of it.“

He drove the last picket in the ground and sighed. He looked back up to Hawke.

“What if they find out what we did? Maybe we should not have involved the Wardens.”

“WE barely know what we did! But right now the darkspawn are real and must be dealt with. The Wardens will deal with the darkspawn and don’t ask too many questions… generally.”

He put his hand on the young man’s shoulder.

“Have faith, son. It’ll be fine.”

“I just hope this doesn’t come and bite us in the ass. I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

“We had no choice. It was this or lose everything.”

“I know, but still…”

 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

“This is all they left behind.” Jarret said, waving his hand to a small pile of iron swords laying on the ground. “Arrow spotted some tracks to the south. She says there must have been about 12 or so. A small pack.”

Arrow nodded, shifting a dead rabbit to her left shoulder. “The tracks are at least a week old, but they are definitely darkspawn. It seems these farmers weren’t bullshitting us.”

Jarret frowned. “Yeah, about the darkspawn at least. Why were they even here? What were they doing so far south?”

“That is not our business, Jarret.” Duncan said. “We are here to investigate the darkspawn. Their personal reasons are their own.”

“Fine, I won’t pry, but if they start using my entrails for some super secret demonic ritual, I’m blaming you, Duncan!”

Duncan chuckled. “We track the darkspawn in the morning. I’ll take first watch. Jarret, you take second. Arrow, third.”

The elf nodded almost imperceptibly. She took the rabbit of her shoulder. “These are nothing but skin and bone I’m afraid.”

Jarret grinned at Duncan. “How very sad, Commander, gonna be more waybread for you.”

Duncan sighed.

“Maybe that Dale kid can still make something out of it.” Arrow intervened, starting back to the camp. “He’s not bad with food.”

She halted grinning back at the two humans. “Then again, everything is better than Jarret’s cooking.” “That’s just _ir’telamaan.”_

“My cooking is perfectly…”

“Jarret, I gave the last meal you cooked to the pigs back in Lothering and they threw it back up. I am pretty sure they are accusing me of trying to poison them and are plotting their revenge as we speak.”

The warrior walked off grumbling.

 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

It was still dark when Dale opened his eyes. He could barely make out the outline of the tent, so it can’t have been very long since the last time he woke up.

_Why is it still so difficult to sleep, after 1 year? Jeez, I am never going to get used to this aren’t I._

He sat up on his furs and grabbed a woolen shirt and trousers. _Maybe some fresh air will do me good._

Getting out of the tent, he saw the elven grey warden sitting against a burned down stump by the tree line outside camp, looking into the dense woods.

 _He liked the elf. she seemed very down to earth and she liked simple things like hunting, good food, the opportunity to put an arrow between a darkspawn’s eyes._ Her light sand and colored hair was waist long and styled into a braid which was now laying over her left shoulder. She was dressed in a simple leather armor over a dark blue tunic and leather trousers. A single griffon sigil engraved on her left shoulder pad was the only thing marking her as a member of the ancient order. Her clothing fit quite tightly around her delicate build. He _liked looking at her when they walked. Especially when she took the lead._

Two daggers were fastened on the small of her back while she held her bow in her hand.

“It’s still at least 2 hours before sunup.” She said startling him.

He joined her on a log to the right of her.

“You’re up early. Can’t sleep again?” She asked, looking up at the young man when he sat next to her.

“Every time.”

“Nightmares?“

“No, I just … can’t sleep.”

“What about you?”

“Third watch.”

“I know but still. I’ve heard you thrashing around in you sleep last 2 nights as well.”

She grinned at him. “Are you spying on me in my sleep? That’s creepy dude.”

His cheeks flushed red almost instantly. _Thank god, it was dark_. he thought.

“No, I didn’t … I mean wasn’t ... Ugh.”

She laughed. “Don’t worry about it.”

“You should have let me know you were there, I might have let you into my tent for closer look.” She winked and smiled at him. “Might help you sleep…”

_He was convinced he couldn’t get any more flustered at that point._

“Or I might have killed you, thinking you were a darkspawn.” She said tapping a finger on her chin.

His face now turned from bright red to pale white so quickly he was afraid he was going to pass out on the spot.

She turned to him. Her large grey-green eyes laughing at him.

 _He was actually kind of cute when he was all flustered and awkward._ His auburn hair was hanging down to his shoulders now, although he usually bound it together in a ponytail during the day. A very slight stubble started on his chin and cheeks, but not entirely reaching his ears yet.

He didn’t look as strong or broad as Jarret or Duncan. His chest and arms were not as defined like a warrior, but he did develop muscles working on the Hawke farm.

He was tall though, rising at least a foot over Jarret. Even Duncan had to look up slightly when addressing the man.

“You’re big for a human. I bet you have big feet too.”

“I... I’m sorry?”

“Your feet.” She pointed. “I bet they’re huge.”

“I don’t know.” He said looking down at them. “They’re … in proportion, I guess.”

“You know what they say about a man with big feet?”

Another awkward laugh. “I’m sure I don’t have clue.” Of course he did. Literally everybody did.

“Big feet, large dick.” She said without a pause.

Just when you thought that he could not get any redder… It was like a tomato was growing out of his shirt, ripe for the picking.

“Are you always this forward?”

“Hey, when you’re doing what I do, there’s no reason to waste time beating around the bush. There is always another fight. You never know if any chance coming your way, will be the last. You think being a Grey Warden is glamorous, glorious? Women and men falling at your feet? Ha! It’s a lot of walking, patrolling sitting on cold floors, trying not to sleep, killing darkspawn, hoping you’ll survive. Waiting for the next mealtime.” She chuckled. “Which is honestly not much to look forward to either with these bunch. Wardens aren’t known for their culinary skills.”

“Hey Arrow, it may not be much, but thank you. For being there. Protecting us against the darkspawn.”

Now it was her turn to be surprised.

“We don’t often get to hear that. You’re welcome. You’re a good sort.”

“So, what’s your real name?”

“It’s Arrow.”

“That’s what we call you, yes, but I assume your parents didn’t name you Arrow, did they?”

Her face fell when he mentioned her parents. _My parents_. _I don’t even know what they looked like. Her anger flared a little thinking of her childhood. It’s not his fault though, he doesn’t know. He probably grew up on a farm, quiet life. Loving fathe,r mother, siblings…_

“When you join the Grey Wardens, you leave your old life behind, sins are washed away, all existing relationships are severed. You are a Warden from that point. So, I am Arrow now, I have no other name.”

“I’m sorry, I … I didn’t mean to pry.”

“Don’t worry about it.” she said forcing a smile on her face.

“Tell me about your family, your dad. You guys are close?”

“You could say that…He taught me everything I know.”

 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

“You’re sure Jarret?”

The Warden kneeled down on one knee, leaning on his griffon shield where the tracks, barely visible ended in front of a large hill.

“Not a 100%, the tracks at least a week old. But they lead here as far as I can tell.”

“Jarret’s right, I think. I didn’t find any deviating tracks nearby either.” Arrow said.

The group stood before a large pile of rubble and stones heaped up against the foot of the large hill, rising from the woods.

Arrow looked up at the pile of rocks. “I see an opening in the rubble up there. Maybe there’s a cave behind?”

Hawke and Dale glanced at each other quickly. The older man shaked his head almost imperceptibly.

Arrow quickly climbed up to the crack in the rocks. “Aye, Commander. Told you didn’t I. There’s a cave here. It smells almost as _ir’telamaan_ as Jarret’s cooking. I bet my pointy ears there’s a connection to the deep roads here.”

Duncan turned towards Hawke and Dale. “I can sense darkspawn are about. It’s best if you come with us when we investigate this cave.”

It was dark until Hawke conjured a small ball of light.

“Jarret turned his head to Hawke. Apostate huh?”

“There’s no real sense in denying it at this point, is there?” Dale said while conjuring his own small ball of light.

Jarret’s eyes widened even more. “Both of you?”

“Aren’t you full of surprises.” Arrow laughed.

Duncan stepped forward. “At least we can see where we’re going now. Let’s go deeper.”

They went down the cave for about 10 minutes. It was a single path no more than a meter wide with stalagmites and stalactites everywhere along the sides. Jarret was leading the group, Duncan behind them, followed by Hawke and Dale. Arrow brought up the rear with her sharp eyes and ears. They came to a slightly bigger hall with a large stalagmite standing in the middle reaching all the way to the top like pillar holding op the roof of the cave.

 _We’re almost at the end of the cave now and we found nothing. Maybe the darkspawn did come from somewhere else?_ Dale thought.

Stalking through a smaller opening on the other side of the pillar, the cave went on for another 100 meters, turning left and right. Suddenly the path widened slightly and they stumbled on another large pile of rubble strewn from one side of the path to the other and a good 20 meters along the length of the passage. The rubble covered the floor of the path, so they had to crawl over the rubble on their knees to continue on. A faint warm light could be seen coming from a wide crack in the distance.

_This should have been a dead end, a solid wall… Why the rubble?_

_What happened here since we…?_

“There is a passage here.” Arrow called out from the fissure in the rocks. It was just large enough to allow a single human through.

They all squeezed through the gap in the wall one by one and came to a huge alcove. It was so large it could have easily contained 15 bronco’s standing tusk to tail, and 7 on top of each other.

There was a large breach in the wall on the far side bathing in an orange-red glow. When they crossed the hall, they found themselves on the precipice of an enormous drop to a river of lava slowly moving south along the bottom of a large wide canyon.

“Looky here, Commander.” Jarret pointed at the side of the breach in the hall. Massive scratches marked the stone walls as if a large animal was trying to widen the breach from the inside with enormous claws.

“The claws that made this must have been enormous.”

Arrow moved a hand to her temple. “This is the Song? Yes, I’m sure of it… Duncan, could this be …?”

Duncan turned his head to her suddenly. “You can hear it?!”

_Of course, she has always been more sensitive to taint. But she has only been a Warden for 3 years. This should not be possible. She can’t be hearing the Calling already._

“We won’t be able to move further this way.” Hawke said looking down into the lava filled canyon. “Unless you wardens can fly of course.”

_Fly…_

“No” Duncan said quietly, looking at the huge claw marks on the wall. _Unless this is…_   His eyes roamed the rest of the walls of the chamber. He could see multiple scratches and large blackened scorch marks all over.

“This is bad! This is very bad, Commander.”

Dale moved a hand over the claw marks in the stone.

_What have we done? What have we unleashed?_

 

Suddenly Arrow turned around to the opening where they came from.

“Guys! I don’t think we are alone anymore.”

Jarret and Duncan drew their blades while Arrow knocked an arrow.

They are going to block our only exit.” Hawke said!

“We must get out of here.” Duncan turned toward the opening. _Now more than ever._ “We must break through. Now! Jarret!”

Jarret strapped his shield to his left arm. “On it Commander! Everyone behind me!” he yelled, then rushed forward through the crevice they came from. Arrow followed right on his heels, then Hawke and Dale. Duncan took up the rear after a last glance in the beast’s lair.

After crawling their way back over the rubble, they arrived in the larger room with the pillar in the center. Jarret lead the group into the hall shield raised, while a group of darkspawn appeared from the exit tunnel. They immediately charged the Wardens. The first Hurlock fell quickly with an arrow between the eyes. Jarret bashed the second to the left with his shield. He easily sidestepped and skewered an onrushing genlock on his blade and finished of the one he bashed against the cave wall earlier, while Arrow expertly finished 2 other darkspawn rushing into the hallway, both their necks pierced with a single arrow.

“You wardens are certainly effective.” Hawke said standing in awe.

“I sense more are on the way.” she said retrieving her arrows. “We must move on.”

Duncan had now arrived after them as well. “Arrow is right. We have to move forward quickly.” He moved into the tunnel immediately. The rest followed him quickly.

After a few minutes the path turned sharp right when Duncan stopped right in his track. The tunnel widened at this point so 4 people could stand next to each other. At the end they could see the exit of the cave, still blocked by rubble, with only the small opening at the top where they crawled through earlier.

About 15 darkspawn, blades drawn, blocked their way, growling and snarling, with more coming through the opening in the rubble.  They were led by a large emissary.

As soon as the emissary saw them he hurled a fireball towards them. Duncan and Jarret, at the front of the group, were caught by surprise and threw themselves to the sides. The fireball never reached them though. It was blocked by a magic shield covering the entire width of the cave. Hawke stood in the middle of the pathway both hands raised. The emissary growled at the mage and fired a barrage of 3 more fireballs.

Hawke’s shield held. “I won’t be able to keep the shield up for long if he keeps throwing those fireballs.”

“We have to break out and quickly!” Duncan said. “More darkspawn will keep coming to block us in.”

Jarret banged his blade against his shield. “Oh, come on, we can take them!”

“No. Our first priority is to get out of here. Plus, we don’t know how many more are outside still waiting.”

Hawke’s face was strained, but the shield still held, shimmering a faint blue across the cave. The emissary launched another fireball at it, but they were coming in slower. He was tiring, but so was Hawke. His arms tense.

“Dale… You can clear us a path.”

The young man stepped up next to Hawke. “There are too many... And the rubble as well…”

“You can do it. I know you can. It is the only way. We won’t be able to hold them off if my shield falls.”

He turned his head to look at the young man.

“As soon as I drop the shield, you blast a way through the darkspawn and the rubble. One big push, just like I taught you.”

“You only taught me the theory.”

“You can do it.”

“I’ll try.” Dale’s eyes now focused on the darkspawn beyond the shield. “Everyone behind me.”

He closed his eyes and held his hands before his stomach. As if he were holding a large invisible ball.

_Right, now focus. Bring the mana up through my arms into my hands. Now convert to Force magic._

A small swirling ball of pure Force magic appeared between the young mages hands.

_Steadily add more mana._

As the dark blue ball grew up to the size of a small pumpkin, a fierce loud wind started blowing around the mage. His hands started shaking.

“Ready?” Hawke yelled!

“Ready!”

“On my mark! Three, two, one! “

At that moment Hawke dropped his arms, the shield dissipated and Dale threw his hands out hurling the Force ball forward, releasing the force energy. The entire cave shook when all darkspawn were thrown back violently by the sheer force of the magic. The emissary conjured a small shield which was immediately destroyed in the blast and the darkspawn tossed backwards. Both the darkspawn and the rubble launched out of the cave into the woods beyond.

Stones and dirt started falling from the ceiling of the cave.

Jarret’s voice now rang over the sound of the entire hill collapsing. “Well, that certainly did it… Let’s go!”

Dale tried to step forward but stumbled immediately and fell on one knee, exhausted. His vision started turning black, when he felt his arm being slung over a shoulder and a hand on his waist, pulling him back on both feet with a grunt.

“Come on, you big lump of human. You are not dying here after saving us like that.” Arrow’s voice whispered in his ear.

Duncan and Jarret were first out of the cave and quickly dispatched the few darkspawn outside who were not caught by the blast.

Arrow followed out next, with Dale hanging on her shoulder. She laid him down against the base of a big Ash tree before grabbing her bow and quiver and smiling down at him. “Better?” He smiled back. “Yeah, thanks.”

When Hawke stumbled out of the cave he turned around and summoned his remaining mana to fling two fireballs into the side of the hill, causing the cave to collapse on itself.

“Is everyone ok?” he asked and turned around to the others, when he tripped and fell. The darkspawn emissary grabbed him by the ankle. He dragged Hawke on his back, pinning him to the ground. He let out a massive roar at Hawke. With one of his monstrous hands he squeezed the air out of the old mage’s windpipe, until the emissary suddenly fell silent and collapsed. An arrow through the neck ended the darkspawn. Its body fell limp to the ground next to Hawke.

A few other darkspawn that were launched out of the cave now started stirring as well grasping for their lost weapons. Duncan and Jarret quickly finished off 4 of them, 3 of which were still unarmed. Arrow’s arrows found 2 more darkspawn heads while Dale finished off a genlock lying close by with well-aimed electric bolt to its face. The mage managed to stand up supporting himself with one hand against the ash tree’s trunk.

“I’m pretty sure that one was already dead, Dale.” The elf said.

“He was twitching.” Dale retorted and turned towards Arrow.

She heard the thud, before the pain came and her shoulder started feeling cold, first wet and then numb. The elf fell forward. Dale was only just able to catch her and laid her under the same tree she put him against not 5 minutes earlier.

Duncan’s throwing knife found its way through the last darkspawn’s neck almost immediately. It died instantly, dropping his bow.

Dale looked at the elf’s face which was growing more pale swiftly and then down to the arrow that punctured her shoulder. He was frantically tearing at the leather jerkin she wore to pull the arrow out of her. “You’ll be fine! Just get the arrow out, put a healing poultice over it. You’re fine.”

She smiled and laid her hand on his. _Not this time._ She glanced at the arrow tip, sticking out of her shoulder. “Deathroot poison… I can already feel it coursing through my veins.”

“No,” he said. “We can fix this. Just sit still.”

He put both his hands on the wound, summoning any remaining mana he had left.

A faint blue light shined through his hands for a moment before dying out again.

_No mana left. Come on!_

His eyes were now burning as a tear slowly rolled down his cheek. He opened them to see her watching him with a smile on her face.

“I’m so sorry, Arrow.”

“Hey Dale,” He was silenced again when she gently put her hand on his cheek wiping away his tear. She urged him to lean closer and slowly whispered in his ear “Just call me Liara.

**Author's Note:**

> Depending on the reactions on this I may start writing a fic covering DAO, but I am a slow writer at best and a horrible procrastinator too... so we'll see I guess.


End file.
